|
The premier blues shouter of the postwar era, Big Joe Turner's roar could rattle the very foundation of any gin joint he sang within -- and that's without a microphone. Turner was a resilient figure in the history of blues -- he effortlessly spanned boogie-woogie, jump blues, even the first wave of rock & roll, enjoying great success in each genre.
Turner, whose powerful physique certainly matched his vocal might, was a product of the swinging, wide-open Kansas City scene. Even in his teens, the big-boned Turner looked entirely mature enough to gain entry to various K.C. niteries. He ended up simultaneously tending bar and singing the blues before hooking up with boogie piano master Pete Johnson during the early '30s. Theirs was a partnership that would endure for 13 years.
The pair initially traveled to New York at John Hammond's behest in 1936. On December 23, 1938, they appeared on the fabled Spirituals to Swing concert at Carnegie Hall on a bill with Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry, the Golden Gate Quartet, and Count Basie. Turner and Johnson performed "Low Down Dog" and "It's All Right, Baby" on the historic show, kicking off a boogie-woogie craze that landed them a long-running slot at the Cafe Society (along with piano giants Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons).
As 1938 came to a close, Turner and Johnson waxed the thundering "Roll 'Em Pete" for Vocalion. It was a thrilling up-tempo number anchored by Johnson's crashing 88s, and Turner would re-record it many times over the decades. Turner and Johnson waxed their seminal blues "Cherry Red" the next year for Vocalion with trumpeter Hot Lips Page and a full combo in support. In 1940, the massive shouter moved over to Decca and cut "Piney Brown Blues" with Johnson rippling the ivories. But not all of Turner's Decca sides teamed him with Johnson; Willie "The Lion" Smith accompanied him on the mournful "Careless Love," while Freddie Slack's Trio provided backing for "Rocks in My Bed" in 1941.
Turner ventured out to the West Coast during the war years, building quite a following while ensconced on the L.A. circuit. In 1945, he signed on with National Records and cut some fine small combo platters under Herb Abramson's supervision. Turner remained with National through 1947, belting an exuberant "My Gal's a Jockey" that became his first national R&B smash. Contracts didn't stop him from waxing an incredibly risqu� two-part "Around the Clock" for the aptly named Stag imprint (as Big Vernon!) in 1947. There were also solid sessions for Aladdin that year that included a wild vocal duel with one of Turner's principal rivals, Wynonie Harris, on the ribald two-part "Battle of the Blues."
Few West Coast indie labels of the late '40s didn't boast at least one or two Turner titles in their catalogs. The shouter bounced from RPM to Down Beat/Swing Time to MGM (all those dates were anchored by Johnson's piano) to Texas-based Freedom (which moved some of their masters to Specialty) to Imperial in 1950 (his New Orleans backing crew there included a young Fats Domino on piano). But apart from the 1950 Freedom 78, "Still in the Dark," none of Turner's records were selling particularly well. When Atlantic Records bosses Abramson and Ahmet Ertegun fortuitously dropped by the Apollo Theater to check out Count Basie's band one day, they discovered that Turner had temporarily replaced Jimmy Rushing as the Basie band's frontman, and he was having a tough go of it. Atlantic picked up his spirits by picking up his recording contract, and Turner's heyday was about to commence.
At Turner's first Atlantic date in April of 1951, he imparted a gorgeously world-weary reading to the moving blues ballad "Chains of Love" (co-penned by Ertegun and pianist Harry Van Walls) that restored him to the uppermost reaches of the R&B charts. From there, the hits came in droves: "Chill Is On," "Sweet Sixteen" (yeah, the same downbeat blues B.B. King's usually associated with; Turner did it first), and "Don't You Cry" were all done in New York, and all hit big.
Turner had no problem whatsoever adapting his prodigious pipes to whatever regional setting he was in. In 1953, he cut his first R&B chart-topper, the storming rocker "Honey Hush" (later covered by Johnny Burnette and Jerry Lee Lewis), in New Orleans, with trombonist Pluma Davis and tenor saxman Lee Allen in rip-roaring support. Before the year was through, he stopped off in Chicago to record with slide guitarist Elmore James' considerably rougher-edged combo and hit again with the salacious "T.V. Mama."
Prolific Atlantic house writer Jesse Stone was the source of Turner's biggest smash of all, "Shake, Rattle and Roll," which proved his second chart-topper in 1954. With the Atlantic braintrust reportedly chiming in on the chorus behind Turner's rumbling lead, the song sported enough pop possibilities to merit a considerably cleaned-up cover by Bill Haley & the Comets (and a subsequent version by Elvis Presley that came a lot closer to the original leering intent).
Suddenly, at the age of 43, Turner was a rock star. His jumping follow-ups -- "Well All Right," "Flip Flop and Fly," "Hide and Seek," "Morning, Noon and Night," "The Chicken and the Hawk" -- all mined the same good-time groove as "Shake, Rattle and Roll," with crisp backing from New York's top session aces and typically superb production by Ertegun and Jerry Wexler.
Turner turned up on a couple episodes of the groundbreaking TV program Showtime at the Apollo during the mid-'50s, commanding center stage with a joyous rendition of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" in front of saxman Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams' band. Nor was the silver screen immune to his considerable charms: Turner mimed a couple of numbers in the 1957 film Shake Rattle & Rock (Fats Domino and Mike "Mannix" Connors also starred in the flick).
Updating the pre-war number "Corrine Corrina" was an inspired notion that provided Turner with another massive seller in 1956. But after the two-sided hit "Rock a While"/"Lipstick Powder and Paint" later that year, his Atlantic output swiftly faded from commercial acceptance. Atlantic's recording strategy wisely involved recording Turner in a jazzier setting for the adult-oriented album market; to that end, a Kansas City-styled set (with his former partner Johnson at the piano stool) was laid down in 1956 and remains a linchpin of his legacy.
Turner stayed on at Atlantic into 1959, but nobody bought his violin-enriched remake of "Chains of Love" (on the other hand, a revival of "Honey Hush" with King Curtis blowing a scorching sax break from the same session was a gem in its own right). The '60s didn't produce too much of lasting substance for the shouter -- he actually cut an album with longtime admirer Haley and his latest batch of Comets in Mexico City in 1966!
But by the tail end of the decade, Turner's essential contributions to blues history were beginning to receive proper recognition; he cut LPs for BluesWay and Blues Time. During the '70s and '80s, Turner recorded prolifically for Norman Granz's jazz-oriented Pablo label. These were super-relaxed impromptu sessions that often paired the allegedly illiterate shouter with various jazz luminaries in what amounted to loosely run jam sessions. Turner contentedly roared the familiar lyrics of one or another of his hits, then sat back while somebody took a lengthy solo. Other notable album projects included a 1983 collaboration with Roomful of Blues, Blues Train, for Muse. Although health problems and the size of his humongous frame forced him to sit down during his latter-day performances, Turner continued to tour until shortly before his death in 1985. They called him the Boss of the Blues, and the appellation was truly a fitting one: when Turner shouted a lyric, you were definitely at his beck and call.
-- Bill Dahl of All Music Guide.
|
01. Cherry Red 02. Roll �Em Pete 03. I Want A Little Girl 04. Low Down Dog 05. Wee Baby Blues |
06. You�re Driving Me Crazy 07. How Long Blues 08. Morning Glories 09. St. Louis Blues 10. Piney Brown Blues |
01. Shake, Rattle And Roll 02. Flip, Flop & Fly 03. Feeling Happy 04. Well All Right 05. The Chicken And The Hawk 06. Boogie Woogie Country Girl 07. Honey Hush |
08. Corrine Corrina 09. Midnight Special Train 10. Hide And Seek 11. Oke-She-Moke-She-Pop 12. Crawdad Hole 13. Sweet Sixteen 14. Chains Of Love |
01. Switchin� In The Kitchen 02. Nobody In Mind 03. Until The Real Thing Comes Along 04. I Get The Blues When It Rains 05. Rebecca |
06. When I Was Young 07. Don�t You Make Me High 08. Time After Time 09. Pennies From Heaven 10. Here Comes Your Iceman |
01. Well Oh Well 02. Joe�s Blues 03. Bluer Than Blue 04. Big Wheel 05. Poor House |
06. Piney Brown Blues 07. Mrs. Geraldine 08. Since I Was Your Man 09. Roll �Em Pete 10. Cherry Red |
01. TV Mama 02. Hide And Seek 03. I�ve Got A Pocketful Of Pencil 04. Rock Me Baby |
05. Texas Style 06. Cherry Red 07. Tain�t Nobody�s Business If I Do 08. Money First |
01. Life Ain�t Easy 02. Plant Your Garden 03. So Long |
04. For Growing Up 05. Morning Glory 06. Kick The Front Door In |
01. Morning, Noon And Night 02. I Know You Love Me Baby 03. TV Mama 04. Tain�t Nobody�s Business If I Do |
01. Stormy Monday 02. Piney Brown (KC) 03. Martin Luther King Southside |
04. Every Day I Have The Blues 05. Shake, Rattle And Roll 06. Lucille |
01. The Midnight Special 02. You�re Driving Me Crazy 03. So Long (it�s been good to know yuh) 04. I Left My Heart In San Francisco 05. I�m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter |
06. I Can�t Give You Anything But Love 07. After My Laughter Came Tears 08. The Things That I Used To Do 09. Stoop Down Baby |
01. The Things That I Used To Do 02. S. K. Blues 03. Jelly, Jelly 04. Hey Little Girl |
05. Shake It And Break It 06. St. Louis Blues 07. Oke-She-Moke-She-Pop 08. My Train Rolled Up In Texas |
01. In The Evening 02. Summertime 03. Sweet Lorraine 04. Too Late, Too Late 05. I�ve Got The World On A String |
06. Chains Of Love 07. Corrine, Corrina 08. J. T. Blues 09. Pennies From Heaven 10. Two Loves Have I |
01. I Want A Little Girl 02. Nobody In Mind 03. The Chicken And the Hawk 04. I Just Didn�t Have The Price |
05. How Long, How Long Blues 06. Crawdad Hole 07. Juke Joint Blues 08. Red Sails In The Sunset |
01. Crawdad Hole 02. Red Sails In The Sunset 03. Cock-A-Doodle-Doo 04. Jumpin� For Joe 05. I Want A Little Girl |
06. Blues Train 07. I know You Love Me 08. Last Night 09. I Love The Way (my baby sings the blues) |
01. Down Home Blues 02. Since I Fell For You 03. Call The Plumber 04. Time After Time |
05. Kansas City 06. Sweet Sixteen 07. Big Legged Woman |
01. Patcha Patcha 02. Blues Lament 03. You Got Me Runnin� |
04. Kansas City On My Mind 05. The Chicken And The Hawk 06. I Want A Little Girl |
01. Miss Bump Suzie 02. The Chill Is On 03. I�ll Never Stop Loving You 04. Don�t You Cry 05. Poor Lover�s Blues 06. Still In Love 07. Baby I Still Want You 08. TV Mama 09. Married Woman 10. You Know I Love You 11. Midnight Cannonball 12. In The Evening 13. Morning, Noon And Night 14. Ti-Ri-Lee 15. Lipstick, Powder And Paint 16. Rock A While |
17. After A While 18. Trouble In Mind 19. World Of Trouble 20. Love Roller Coaster 21. I Need A Girl 22. Teenage Letter 23. Wee Baby Blues 24. We�re Gonna Jump For Joy 25. Sweet Sue 26. My Reasons For Living 27. Love, Oh Careless Love 28. Got You On My Mind 29. Chains Of Love 30. My Little Honeydripper 31. Tomorrow Night 32. Honey, Hush |
01. Rocks In My Bed 02. So Long (it�s been good to know yuh) 03. Howlin� Winds 04. Woman You Must Be Crazy 05. How Come My dog Don�t Bark |